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It's Not Easy Being Perky....
, It's Not Easy Being Perky....]] It's Not Easy Being Perky.... is a fictional book for which the cover art was created by Susan M. Garrett. She used this art to begin the Forever Knight Bookcover Contest—a challenge to her fellow fans to create their own Forever Knight-themed bookcovers. History In 1997, the first pro Forever Knight tie-in novel was published, A Stirring of Dust (New York: Berkeley) by Susan Sizemore. The cover of the novel was poorly received by the fans. Susan Garrett therefore posted a challenge to the mailing list, FORKNI-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU, in which she proposed a contest to create covers for fictional FK-related books. As it is traditional in FORKNI-L challenges for the person introducing it to offer their own example, she created the cover for It's Not Easy Being Perky..... Ostensible Contents It's Not Easy Being Perky.... is ostensibly an unauthorized biography of Tracy Vetter, one of the characters in the third season of the show. The word "Perky" in the title references the name of the faction associated with Tracy, the Perkulators. The "not easy" is a nod to the negative reception accorded to the introduction of the character at the start of Season Three. Fans had strongly objected to the producers replacing Don Schanke (Nick Knight's previous partner on the Metropolitan Police force) with Tracy, the more so since it was no secret the change had been made primarily because TPTB wanted to add a stereotypical blonde character in order to increase the sex quotient of the show. Overall Design Both front and back covers are dominantly primary yellow, as is the spine. However, on both front and back, there is a broad, contrasting, moderately dark blue stripe down the left side, which comprises as much as one third of the width. The overall impression is one of bright, clear flat blocks of saturated tone. The blue portions are largely empty of text, but contain the crest of the Metropolitan Police, as seen in the show. This is noticeably larger on the front cover than on the back. Small crests are also included at the top and bottom of the spine. The choice of dark blue references the usual colour of police uniform, Tracy being a detective on the Metropolitan Police force. Front Cover The front cover is dominated by a large picture of Tracy, clipped from a screen capture taken from the episode "Black Buddha Part One". Unfortunately, the artwork was presented in GIF format; and the bad reproduction values rather blur the details of the screencap, though the subject is clear enough for identification. The picture is positioned centrally, overlapping the blue border. Above it is the title of the book. Underneath, in white text (hard to read on the yellow background), is the blurb, "An unauthorized, candid biography of one of Toronto Metro Police Department's rising young detectives". Spine Aside from the police crests, the spine simply has the title of the book, in a large font. Susan did not bother to invent information on the author or publisher. Back Cover The yellow portion of the back cover is filled with two sections of text material, separated from one another by a row of small smily faces (the symbol of the Perks faction). The smaller top section of text is a blurb for the book. It reads, "An inside look at day-to-day life for one of Toronto's finest, a homicide detective who's grown used to working the darker alleys of our fair city and yet remains a perky, attractive role model for today's youth". The bottom section includes four fictional quotations, each from a character in Season Three. * From Captain Joe Reese, Tracy's immediate superior. This is the only quotation that is actually about Tracy herself. :"She's a good cop. No, really. Smiles too much, but she'll get over it." * From Detective Nicholas Knight, her partner. The dialogue indicates that Nick is hypnotizing someone (a reporter asking for a quotation?) who has presumably seen something suggesting that he is a vampire. The "Thump Thump" references the heartbeat effect added to the soundtrack during scenes of hypnosis. :"You didn't see that. You will leave now. You will never return. Thump Thump." * From an "Unidentified long-haired friend". Fans would identified this to be Vachon. :"You're kidding me, right? Get lost. That's not a threat. You want to see a threat--?" * From Commissioner Richard Vetter. Fans familiar with Tracy's difficult relationship with her over-controlling father would interpret this to be his reaction to something written about him in the book. :"You're toast. You'll never work in this town again. I'll sue every one of you!" See also * Forever Knight Bookcover Contest Category:Forever Knight Bookcover Contest Category:Works by Susan M. Garrett